Gas-generating apparatus.



PATENTED DEC. 13, 1904.

W. H. & G. RUSSELL.

GAS GENERATING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 9, 1904.

N0 MODEL.

mini

m UHU N0. 777,545. Patented December 13, 1904.

NITE STATES PATnNT FFICE.

WILLIAM H. RUSSELL AND GEORGE E. RUSSELL, OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNORS TO INTER GAS POI YER COMPANY, A OORPORA- TION OF NEW YORK.

GAS-GENERATING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 777,545, dated December 13, 1904.

Application filed April 9, 1904. Serial No. 202/105. (No model.)

To who?" it y con/207%: bell is a perforated holder 15. It may be ex- Be it known that we, WILLIAM H. RUssuLL plained here that the apparatus is designed, O

and GEORGE E. RUssELL, citizens of theUnited as herein shown, for producing hydrogen by States, and residents of Jersey City, Hudson electrolytic action, and to effect this the ves- 5 county, New Jersey, havejointly invented cersel 1 1 is of copper and contains water acidutain new and useful Improvements in Gas Aplated with sulfuric acid, and the perforated paratus, of which the following is a speciiicaholder 15, also of copper, contains scraps of 55 tion. zine. This holder is removably mounted at This invention relates to the manufacture its upper end in the crown of the bell and in- IQ of gas for illumination and other purposes; sulated from the latter by a ring 16, of insuand the object of the invention is to provide lating material. It is furnished with a screw a convenient means for producing hydrogen cap or plug for closing it, and this cap has in 60 by electrolysis, mixing the same with air, carit an opening closed by a plug or stopper bursting the mixture, and storing the gas, all A contact-spring 17 connects the copper and 5 as will be hereinafter described with reference zinc elements. This completes the circuit.

to the accompanyingdrawings, wherein The bell in rising draws in air at the inlet Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of the ap- 11, and this air mixes with the hydrogen. 5 paratus. Fig. 2is an enlarged sectional view In its descent the bell forces the gases out of the check-valve device below the pump. through the outlet-pipe 12 to the carbureting Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of the means new to be described.

carbureter. The carbureter proper, 18, (seen in section As herein shown, the apparatus includes two in Fig. 3,) consists of a vessel with aremovable 7 major parts-na1nely, the generator (desigcover, to which the pipe 12 is connected on nated as a whole by A) and the gas-holder, one side. This vessel is filled with fibrous (designated as a whole by B.) Between them absorbent material 19 to receive the liquid is the carbureting means O. hydrocarbon for carbureting, and a pipe 12 The generatorA comprises adouble-walled leads the carbureted gas to a chamber 20 in 75 tank 1, open at the top and provided with an the base of the gas-holder B. The liquid hyannular water seal 2. In the seal 2 is susdrocarbon is supplied from a suitable vessel 3 pended a bell3, adapted to be raised and low- 21, from which it is lifted by a pump and ered by suitable mechanism. Any mechanforced to the carbureter 18. This pump eonism may be employed for this purpose; but sists of a cylinder 22, secured to the generator 80 that shown includes a shaft 4:, rotatively tank, and a piston 23, the rod 23*0'1 which is mounted in aframe 5 and having on it a crank coupled to an arm 24 on the bell of the gen- 6, coupled'by a rod 7 and hail 8 to said bell. erator. A pipe 25 connects the vessel21 with The shaft 1 may be rotated by a rope 9, wound the pump, and another pipe, 26, connects the upon a drum 10 on the shaft. Any form of pump with the carbureterlS, beingcontrolled 5 power may be applied to the rope, as a weight, at the latter by a needle-valve 27. The stroke for example. A pipe 11, havingin it a checkof the pump is or maybe limited by allowing valve 11. admits air to the chamber 13 under its piston-rod 23 to play through the arm 2 1, the bell when the latter rises, and a pipe 12, and providing it with limithag-stops 23 one provided with a check-valve 12, is the disof which may be a nut. Below the pump in 9 charge-pipe for the gas, which is forced out the pipe 25 is a check-valve device 28. (Seen when the bell descends. detached in Fig. 2.) This device has a main Within the generator-chamber under the check-valve 28*, whichwill prevent the liquid bell (which is a dry chamber not connected under normal conditions from flowing back with the water seal) is a removable open vesto thevessel 21 and compel it to How to the 5 sel 14, and suspended from the crown of the carbureter; but in case the needle-valve is very nearly closed or for any other reason there is undue resistance to the flow of liquid to the carbureter a small valve 28 in the bottom of the valve 28 and backed by a spring 28 will open and allow the surplus liquid to flow back to the vessel 21. In the lower part of carbureter 18, Fig. 3, is a perforated diaphragm 29, and in the bottom below said diaphragm is an outlet from which a small pipe 30 leads any liquid hydrocarbon which may collect in the bottom of the carbureter to the tank or vessel 21. This outlet is controlled by a light spring-valve 31, which closes the outlet when there is any unbalanced pressure at said outlet from any cause.

The holder B comprises a tank 32, provided with a water seal 33 and a bell 34c. There is a bottom 35 to the gas-chamber 36, and the gas from the chamber below flows up into the chamber 36 through a pipe 37. 'hen the bell descends, the gas is forced out to the service-pipe by way of a pipe 38. There is a support for weights 39 on the bell 34 to regulate the pressure of the gas in the servicepipe. In order to limit the upward movement of-the bell 34 and arrest the flow of gas to the holder when the latter is full, there is a cook 40 in the pipe 12, and an arm on the plug of this cock is coupled by a link &1 with the shorter arm of a lever 42, fulcrumed in a bracket 43 on the tank of the holder. The longer weighted arm of the lever 42 rests on a roller 44 on the bell of the holder. When the bell rises to the position seen in dotted lines in Fig. 1, the cock 10 is closed and cuts off the flow of mixed air and hydrogen to the carbureter.

In order to regulate the richness of the gas in carbon, the chamber 20 has in it a diaphragm or filter-partition 15, through which the gas entering through 12 may rise and filter through to an upper chamber 20, removing thus any liquid hydrocarbon from the gas and thoroughly mixing the vapor and gases. A pipe 46, connecting with the pipe 12 before the latter reaches the carbureter 18 and entering the chamber 20 supplies a mixture of non-carbureted air and hydrogen to the gas supplied by the pipe 12. There is a stop cock or valve 47 in this pipe &6, whereby the amount of the mixed gases flowing therethrough to the holder may be suitably regulated.

It will be seen that the gas-producing device described has important advantages in this class of apparatus. It enables the liquid hydrocarbon to be used in such a way as to preserve a nearly uniform density and to avoid the lighter being taken first and the heavier at the last. The hydrocarbon will be practically the same in density at all times. It also enables the amount of the liquid supplied to be carefully regulated and permits, through the pipe 46 and cook 47, the richness of the gas in carbon to be nicely regulated by the user.

The exact construction herein shown is not essential to the invention, and it may obviously be varied to some extent without departing materially from or affecting the operation of the invention. For example, the pipes may be arranged in any convenient way. In Fig. 1 the parts have been disposed and arranged for convenience of illustration; but so long as they perform their functions their arrangement is not material. Obviously the cock &0 may be so constructed that it will cut off the gas when the bell of the holder shall have risen to the desired height, whatever that may be. So long as the tank 1 and hell 3 form an alternately expanding and contracting generating chamber it is not important what means are employed for moving the bell up and down.

By liquid hydrocarbon as herein used is meant any of the readily-vaporizable hydrocarbons-such as gasolene, naphtha, &c.and other similar liquids, such as alcohol, may be used as well.

Having thus described our invention, we claim 1. A gas apparatus, having a hydrogen-generator, comprising an open, double-walled tank provided with a water seal in the annular chamber between its walls, a bell suspended in said annular chamber, an open-topped cop per vessel in the chamber in the tank, under the bell, a perforated copper holder carried by and insulated from the bell and suspended in said open-topped vessel, the spring-contact, mechanism exterior to the tank for alternately raising and lowering said bell, an inlet-pipe for air to the chamber under the bell, and an outlet-pipe for the mixed air and gas, said apparatus also having a carbureter connected with said outlet.

2. A gas apparatus, having a hydrogen-generating chamber capable of expansion and contraction, and having an inlet for air and a gas-outlet for the mixed air and hydrogen, mechanism exterior to said chamber which alternately and regularly expands and contracts it for drawing in the air and expelling the mixed air and gas, acarbureter connected with said gas-outlet, a filter for the gas, and a receiver and holder for the carbureted gas.

3. A gas apparatus, having an alternately expanding and contracting hydrogen-generating chamber, having an inlet for air and an outlet for gas, a carbureter connected with said outlet, a chamber 20 which receives the carbureted gas, a chamber 20, a filter-partition separating said chambers 20 and 20, and a cock-controlled pipe connecting the chamber 2O with the outlet from the hydrogen generating chamber.

1. In a gas apparatus, the combination with the tank 1, having an annular chamber for a liquid seal, an inlet for air and an outlet for gas, an open copper vessel14c in the chamber in said tank, and the bell 3 pendent in said annular chamber, of the perforated copper holder 15 carried by and insulated from the bell and open at its upper end through the crown of the bell, the spring-contact 17, exterior means for reciprocating the bell, a carbureter connected with the gas-outlet of the generator, and a receiver for the carbureted gas.

5. A gas apparatus, having a generator for producing hydrogen and mixing it with air, said generator having a reciprocating bell, an inlet for air and an outlet for gas, a carbureter connected with said outlet, a holder for a liquid hydrocarbon, a pump operated by said reciprocating bell and connected on the receiving side with the said hydrocarbon-holder and on the other side with the carbureter, and aholder for the carbureted gas connected with said carbureter.

6. Agas apparatus, having a generator for producing hydrogen gas and mixing it with air, said generator having a reciprocating hell,

an inlet for air and an outlet for gas, a carbureter connected with said outlet, a holder for liquid hydrocarbon, a pump operated by said bell, said pump being connected on its receiving side with the said holder for hydrocarbon and on the other side with the carbureter, a holder for the gas connected with and receiving gas from the carbureter, and a check device between the pump and holder of liquid hydrocarbon, said check device having means for permitting the surplus liquid topass back to the holder when the pressure exceeds a predetermined point.

In witness whereof We have hereunto signed our names, this 6th day of April, 1904, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WILLIAM H. RUSSELL. GEORGE E. RUSSELL.

l/Vitnesses:

HENRY GONNETT, BENJAMAN H. Hour. 

